Defying Judgement
by Lunar Night
Summary: Complete. Sora never made his way out after being turned into a Heartless in Hollow Bastion, now he strives to reclaim his heart from Kingdom Hearts after becoming the strongest heartless. The wielder of the Emerald Keyblade, Kairi is the only one left.
1. Chapter 1

Self-introductions are in order, my name is...well of little importance, especially as I am called many things, by many people, through many lives and times and worlds.

In this fabricated world, I am the governor of hearts, I am known as the consciousness of Kingdom Hearts.

It was just a few days ago that quite an interesting situation occurred to me, I received the heart of a keyblade wielder known as Sora. Yet by chances of miracles that even I may never understand, the boy managed to retain his human form and return from the depths of darkness. As much as I am guardian of hearts, reasons such as the love the girl Kairi possessed for Sora as simply not plausible.

As governor, I understand the rules, and Sora has broken them.

I hold no jurisdiction in the department of consequences, however, even I can now feel the tremble of the judge of balance. One Sora of this world has received two hearts, one Sora in another world will have none.

Those are the rules that must be upheld, no matter how much Sora may bend them, such laws will not change.

Yet I am interested in the course that the other Sora shall follow upon, one with a heart lost to oneself. Will he feel betrayed? Angry? Or will there never be enough of a heart to feel anything at all?

I shall peer into his world, and you shall follow, lest you make the same mistake, lest you dare disobey the law.

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**Chapter 1: **

**The Wisest Heartless - Ansem, The Strongest Heartless - Sora**

A change of fate is amazingly simple.

As Sora marched in the form of a minion heartless down the corridors of Hollow Bastion in order to answer the call of darkness, he tripped upon a dent placed conveniently on the floor. A small square shaped mark which was able to send even a heartless tumbling down towards the floor.

The heartless Sora peeked his head up from the floor and looked upon the dent, a simple small dent, left conveniently with traces of Donald's magic so that an intangible being such as the heartless would still be affected.

_Where was I going towards?_

And thus fate changed, due to a sequence of convenient and simple contraptions, this Sora would never see Kairi in time, this Sora would never be freed from his curse of darkness.

The heartless creeped up, something was still calling out to him, yet it was no longer from the same direction. This call came from someone different, the voice wasn't soft, the intention wasn't pleading, it wasn't joy, nor sadness. It was emotionless, heartless, it was the call he was used to answering.

The heartless found himself a dark corner and slowly began melding with the walls, his body turning liquid-like as he immersed himself within the walls and vanished.

_Where? Which way? Who calls?_

The heartless was new to his abilities and found that he did not know his way around the vast darkness.

_Who calls upon me?_

"Rise Heartless."

The heartless rose from within the darkness extending its limbs outwards, and along with it hundreds and thousands of others like itself all rose out before a tall and lean mean standing atop a black platform in a white room.

No borders seemed to exist in this vast room which encased thousands of heartless, no doors, no edges, as if the room spanned on forever.

And at the center was the man named Ansem, the wisest of them all, wisest of the heartless, the one who would lead them back to Kingdom Hearts, though the wisest knew not the true intentions of his actions.

Ansem frowned at his gathering, "Not quite what I've expected, all Lvl 1 heartless, I shall require more power at my side should I desire to force open the way to Kingdom Hearts."

_Kingdom Hearts? Kingdom Hearts? My wish, my goal, take me to Kingdom Hearts!_

One of the heartless among many trembled, a small movement that Ansem took no notice to, he was more preoccupied with how he would open the pathway now that the keyblade wielder had perished.

"Perhaps there are others I can find, the mouse king for one, yet his sly movements have outwitted me thus far. And I've no time to chase after mice."

_Take me to Kingdom Hearts! Me! _

"If only I too possessed the power to open the doors."

Ansem raised his hand, readying to scatter the heartless once more into the darkness. He would continue his search for greater minions on another world, perhaps one with more hatred where the strong gather.

_Power!_

One heartless extended his arms forward until his hands grasped upon the head of the heartless in front of him, and then in an instant, his gaping jaws open and bit down upon the head of another heartless.

No blood, no dramatics, the second heartless was devoured as though the mouth of a heartless were a vacuum.

Another, this time to the left, faster this time and the right as well, so much darkness, so much strength, all his simply to take, take, take.

_Power! Strength! Take me to Kingdom Hearts!_

The heartless began to scurry now, paying attention to the brethren who was devouring his own flesh and blood. They would be next, they must run, escape first, return to the darkness.

Ansem stopped himself, he had begun to take notice to the heartless now, one that devoured the other of his kind, unlike anything he had ever seen before. The heartless began to grow, change, it was now as tall as his own shoulders, thin and quick, it was now eating away at the other heartless by simply inserting its claws into them.

"Most interesting, this heartless, what is it trying to do? I've never seen this behaviour in the heartless, unified in their desire, yet this one, it appears to have a separate agenda."

Ansem watched, amused. He was curious at this sudden change but also very interested at what this new breed of heartless would do, as he already saw the emerging of more powerful heartless, attracted by the deep desire of darkness.

"Wait...desire? This is...a heartless with a heart?"

Close, but better yet it would appear the judge of balance failed to cut the connection between this Sora and his heart which sleeps within the Sora of another world. The attraction was what drove this heartless to insanity, it desired to pass through me, Kingdom Hearts, in order to reach his heart.

The heartless jittered like lightning as the multitude of now emerging heartless appeared.

It acted as though a shadow, flicking towards the back of its enemies, and then quickly in one stroke, decapitate them and devour the darkness they left behind.

Ansem watched intensely now, even cautiously, the battle had enraged to a point where he could no longer control, if he stepped off his black platform at this point, the Lvl 2 heartless of behemoth proportions would be after him all the same.

He was the wisest, but the heartless only acknowledged strength and hearts, he had no hearts, and he was not the strongest.

The heartless now faced an army of his own kind, summoned by his own desire for strength they covered every corner of this white world, so that it was now black.

They would continue to come, answering to his call, until he was powerful enough, until he could subdue them all, until he was the strongest heartless.

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Ansem bowed to his knees from atop his platform, he would never disgrace himself as such, he stood at the top, the pinnacle, why would he ever need to bow down?

Yet his trembling limbs would not allow him to say otherwise.

All others stood still, the massive gathering of heartless dared not breathe, though I never know whether they needed to in the beginning.

A wild assortment of round bellied heartless and other Lvl 3s of various abilities, only a few Lvl 2 behemoths remained, their human form towering above all else. All the Lvl 4 heartless had been absorbed, and the last one has been the final one.

A new Lvl 5 heartless like Ansem had been born, one with thought, with consciousness, and unlike Ansem, this one was the strongest.

**"You are Ansem the wise?"**

Ansem lifted his face and looked upon the heartless.

This heartless chose a humanoid form like himself, his legs were thin like black bones, where his feet looked mechanical. His arms were much the same, yet his hands were distinct where his right was a giant black blade and his left was a bear-like claw. A black demon wing stretched from the right side of his back and an eagle-like face glowed with eerie yellow eyes.

"At your service, master of heartless." Ansem frowned, he hadn't meant to say that, he would call no one master. Yet he did, the lord of the heartless held stronger to his darkness than he could have imagined.

**"Take me, to Kingdom Hearts."**


	2. Chapter 2

Note: The parent thing is just this little joke I have since it seems no adults ever appear from Kairi and Sora's world yet in KH1 Sora's mom calls him down on dinner. Plus from his room he could see Destiny Island when home was hardly visible from the island, at first I thought that world consisted of 6 kids living on one island, I was wrong but there's really not that much supporting evidence asides from Sora's invisible mother and the architect from the brief view of Kairi's world in KH2.

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A girl with wavering brown hair stood at the edge of the beach, gazing out to an island that was within reach of a short paddle.

From behind her, an enormous duck and a walking dog approached.

"Guh Kairi? Staring out at that island again?"

Kairi turned around, her face a wide smile and whatever expression she might have been making before left without a trace.

"Yep, don't you think it looks wonderful there? And it's such good weather too, I'd take a paddle over if the row boats over here didn't have holes all over the place."

Kairi took the lead and the three began heading back into the village. Everytime Kairi walked away from that view it felt strange to her, like she was leaving her world once again. Destiny Island had been her home, this place where she stood now represented nothing more to her than the link between this world and the next.

They treaded past a field where the crop growers worked, where Wakka looked up from his crop works to wave them off, it seemed he was far too busy to say more, although he did manage to give Donald the stare before they parted.

In the heart of the city, there was a school, a library, the general essentials of modern day life. Kairi's home lay on the other end of the city, at the foot of a mountain where she would usually spend most of summers fanning herself off and most of winters stuffed in bed. And well, Donald had feathers, though she had never seen him shed for the summer while Goofy simply seemed immune to change of climate altogether.

On her way home, she passed by Selphie who was waving her off along with some blonde boy. Kairi rubbed her eyes a bit when she seemed to notice that the boy had a tail extending out, but she dismissed it as another unusual hobby that was in the trend. Not to mention it wasn't all that strange when large walking ducks and dogs talked.

There was also Tidus passing by who seemed to busy to notice her, no doubt he was off again to steal Wakka from his crop work so they could practice ball again. Kairi watched as he sped off into the distance, for a brief moment she wished he'd stop and talk a bit to her, after all Tidus had grown out quite well, he was good-looking, cheerful, active, Kairi was sure that she wasn't the only one who had had such thoughts before. But alas, he was a ball freak, not to mention she had duties of her own.

Kairi reached her home, a wooden building big enough to comfortably hold all three of them. Her mother and father? Well she was sure she had one, yet it seemed somewhere along the line their absence went unnoticed. She remembered being called down to dinner the night before, but she also recalled making her own dinner...

Well every world had their mysteries, she would solve this one after she prevents the heartless from reaching Kingdom Hearts.

Kairi sat down on her bed while Donald went to fetch some herbs from the kitchen and Goofy got some warm water boiled up.

Kairi gently lifted her school uniform while she grimaced to reveal a fresh wound that stretched from her lower back to her belly-button.

Donald and Goofy came back in with their respective items plus a towel that Donald grabbed on his way over.

"Kairi, don't push yourself, you need more rest." Donald quacked as he used to towel and the water to clean off her wound.

"I think Donald's right, guh, no good to anyone looking like that." Now that Goofy had delivered his water, he was at a loss when it came to the more delicate portions of treatment.

Kairi smiled and raised her arms as Donald bandaged some herbs around her wound. The keyblade granted her incredible healing powers, but pain was still pain and a wound that deep wasn't just going to vanish overnight.

"Don't worry guys, it's not as bad as it looks." Then more sternly, "Plus we don't have that much time, they must be close to Kingdom Hearts by now."

Donald sighed, "Alright alright, but at least eat something first. We'll have your mom...you have a mom?"

"Gwarsh you mean that pale white lady I saw last night? She was pretty but you look nothing like her."

"Goofy that's called a ghost."

"Like the ones living in the King's castle?"

"No those are just walking brooms."

Kairi laughed out loud, barely controlling herself from hurting on the wound, "O you two, thanks guys."

Donald and Goofy went off to try and cook, in the process Kairi intervened so that the meal could be edible and safe.

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Kairi stood at the door leading out. She had changed from her school uniform into something more flexible, a tanktop and a pair of shorts, her hair was also tied back with a pink elastic.

"Ready guys?"

"Gwarsh anytime."

"Heartless butts are waiting to be kicked."

Kairi extended her hand and from it the kingdom key shimmered to life. A golden handle with a silver blade.

Kairi reached into her pocket and pulled out the oathkeeper, a starman that she had given Sora as a promise. It had come back to her miraculously and fulfilled the promise, but Sora never came back with it. All that did was the oathkeeper and his legacy, the keyblade.

She chained it gently to the end of the kingdom key and immediately change began to take place.

"Huyuh, I never get tired of this."

A deep emerald spread through the blade as it lengthened another 4 inches. The golden handle slimmed itself and turned azure while the handle she held remained the original silver.

In her guise she had imprinted a deep picture in the recesses of the heartless' minds from a year ago ever since her narrow escape from Hollow Bastion. She had taken out countless heartless more than Sora before her and with such talent that she was known throughout many worlds as "Kairi, wielder of the Emerald Keyblade, last hope of the worlds."

"Last hope of the world" was naturally quite an immense amount of pressure, but she had done the best she could, slowed the progress of the heartless and even swayed them off whole worlds all together.

But their latest and final campaign, a path towards Kingdom Hearts was something she had little success of delaying. Her third attempt had left her with the fresh wound but with little time left, she was ready for her fourth attempt the day after.

Kairi raised her keyblade and tapped the handle of the door with the emerald tip.

From the handle, a surface of white began spreading until it consumed the door and the handle, it was the ultimate magic of decorating, except white was a bit dull and she had yet to manage to make it multi-coloured.

Well ok...that's not really what it does.

Kairi spun the white handle and pulled open the door, behind it lay the scene of a distorted world, a black tower in the far distance with strikes of black lightning surrounding it. A path leading towards that tower when all else besides the path was a muddled mixture of dark colours. Then came into view the masses of heartless in the far corners of this world, this place of darkness.

Goofy had suggested to call this place "End of the World", Donald insisted something like "World of darkness" was more fitting, in the end World of Darkness won in a game of rock paper scissors.

Kairi stepped through the door and entered the world of darkness, Donald and Goofy following behind her.

"Well guys, how far do you think we are this time?"

Donald stared into the tower in the distance, "Closer than last time anyways, but not as far as we made it."

Kairi's keyblade granted her the ability to open doors into other worlds, however the precise location of the doors was a trick she hadn't mastered thus each time the door would open into another location of that world.

This time the door had opened closer to the black tower than last time, but alas, it would have been a lot better if it simply opened right at the top of that tower.

_Too good to hope for..._

"Come on guys, we have a long road to hike."

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The chubby heartless looked as though it wanted to giggle, the idea was atrocious and frightening. Imagine for a moment a 300 lbs male walking up with a fat wide smile, a heavy face of beard and saying he wanted to give you a hug.

Donald and Goofy were slightly occupied with a set of disastrous flying balls of light, especially bad for Donald as they insisted on continuously frying his tail with fire magic.

Kairi lunged at the fat heartless as it reached out to grab her, her left arm grabbed his right wrist as she lifted her entire body onto his right arm. She jumped towards him and spun herself around so that her heels caught on the heartless' shoulders and she was essentially standing on them.

_Virgin's Kiss - Last Touch_

Kairi dropped from the heartless' back as her blade struck him straight on the head, she then jumped off his back like a dolphin and as she arced forward, preparing to land, her blade flashed again slashing at the heartless' head sideways.

The head of the large figure tore into four pieces and the rest of the body disintegrated behind it.

Another one appeared before her in the place of the fallen, she would have done the same thing, but she was getting tired. Lack of stamina was the only reason she hadn't made it to the end of the world of darkness as far as she was concerned.

She lifted her keyblade in front of her, closed her eyes and began to concentrate.

_Keyblade Magic - Open_

The emerald blade glowed as she plunged it into the belly of the fat heartless, the blade sinking in as though the round shield were cotton.

When the blade had completely sunken in, she turned it sideways and emerald light exploded from the corners of the heartless, sending the dark image away and releasing another heart that flowed off into the distance.

Yet another heartless stepped into the void she had created, there seemed no end to these things. Her steps began to fall back as she fended it off and before she knew it, her backs touched that of Donald and Goofy's.

"Gwarsh looks like we're in trouble again."

"Wrong Goofy, this is called a tactical gathering of strategic minds." Donald quacked.

"Gwarsh that's uhh... a wut and wut?"

Kairi chuckled, "Looks like we lost this one, we'll have to pull out while we still can."

Just then all the heartless went silent as they stepped aside and opened a path in front of Kairi.

Astonished, confused, and extremely cautious Kairi beckoned Donald and Goofy to look her way.

"Huyuh, I think it's a sign."

"From the heartless? Are you crazy Goofy?"

"But gwarsh Donald, they've never done this before."

Kairi stopped the two of them, "No matter guys this is one chance I don't want to..."

But she realized by this point that the path hadn't been made for her, it had been made for someone else who was coming to them. In the distance she could see a man who was floating closer, a tall lean figure, silver hair, wearing a large black coat. (Not Sephiroth.)

"Welcome wielder of the Keyblade, my name is Ansem the Wise."

"Gwarsh, as in Ansem the Wise is your whole name or just the Wise part?"

Ansem held back a popping vain while Kairi held back her breath.

"You may call me Ansem." Well it did kind of answer the question.

Kairi's blade pointed towards Ansem, "You're a heartless."

"Not the most difficult observation but yes you're right. I was bored with the preparations and had heard of the feeble struggles of a lone keyblader here so I decided to drop in and say hi."

Donald stepped forward, his tail wiggling behind him, "Are you the leader of these heartless?"

"Ye...well...no technically speaking, although I do order them to do the menial chores. Such as disposing menacing keybladers, ducks and dogs."

"Well than take us to him, we're stopping you from opening the door to Kingdom Hearts."

Ansem raised his right hand as a ball of flame gathered within his palms.

Kairi pulled her keyblade back in a defensive stance just as the flame was released. The flames scattered in front of the keyblade but the searing heat scorched her lungs.

"Cough...cough."

"There is no rush...Kairi, nor do you have the ability to do much."

Kairi's face flashed up, "How do you know my name?"

"Don't recognize me? It can't be helped I suppose. I am Riku."

Kairi flung her keyblade wildly at him, "No! You're nothing like Riku!"

Ansem sidestepped the slash, "But I am, Riku, Ansem, we're one and the same. His light, my darkness. My power, his heart. Equivalent trades, a fine transaction if I do say so myself."

Kairi stood up again slowly, her posture seemingly recovered. "Let him go."

"He wants to be a part of me Kairi, why don't you just join us?"

Ansem lunged forward, another ball of flame fresh in his hand.

"Donald, Goofy."

Donald raised his staff at Kairi's blade. "Aeroga!"

Goofy stepped in front of the whole group as Ansem released his flame. Goofy raised his shield and repelled it.

Kairi stepped in from below Goofy's shield. Ansem outstretched his hands and summoned a buff heartless in front of him. Kairi jumped up.

As she began to fall, the heartless guard reached outwards with its claws, intent on shredding her.

"Ice!"

Kairi jumped off the pillar of ice beneath her while Goofy charged in with his shield repelling the heartless' assault and stunning both of them.

Kairi landed behind Ansem, without any guards in her way and his back exposed.

_Virgin's Kiss - Dive_

The wind gathered on the keyblade extended towards the tip until fired off like a spinning tornado. Ansem scowled as the spinning wind slashed him in the back.

He spun around, angry and his hands extending towards Kairi.

She lowered her body and slid into him as her right foot stepped on his left. For a moment Ansem looked as though he was slipping forwards.

"Second strike."

The keyblade was brought up to his falling body as she released the foot she was stepping on. Sending Ansem flying back with another scowl of pain.

She pointed her keyblade at Ansem as he struggled up, lifted by a crowd of heartless that still surrounded them motionlessly.

"You seemed mistaken Ansem, you're not fighting a struggling keyblader, you've chosen the wrong match and the wrong group to have it with."

"Huyuh, that's right."

"Just go back to the hole you crawled out of."

Ansem stood up, and with a wave of his hand dispersed the surrounding heartless.

"You would strike down a friend Kairi?"

"Don't get familiar with me, if you're really Riku then I'll take out the boss of this place and free him from you all in one fell swoop."

"Brave words girl. Come then, this encounter was a fated one and so shall be your presence."

Ansem waved his hand, the path leading to the dark tower that had dissappeared moments ago reappeared. "I shall be waiting."

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Kairi dropped to her knees, trembling as she hand her face in her hands, her keyblade dropped at her side.

"I could feel him, it was really him, Riku's alive."

Donald padded her on the back, "Don't worry, we'll save him from Ansem and we can all go home together this time."

"It's not just that Donald, if Riku's still alive, then maybe, maybe Sora is."

Goofy seemed to have a lightbulb click ontop of him, "Gwarsh why didn't I think of that. Sora and Riku were both together when we last saw them."

Donald didn't seem as optimistic, he remembered how Riku had taken Sora's heart, it was hardly likely that he was still alive, or at least human.

"Sora, please be ok...please...come back to me..."

Kairi sobbed silently, as she stood up, she still had ways to go, it couldn't end yet, not until she found everyone like Sora once did and this time they would go home together.

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Yet the judge plays with cruel twists, Sora will no longer be Sora. Riku feels no desire to return, and soon Kairi herself will be engulfed by the darkness.

All this Sora, because you broke the law. If only you could see how your other selves suffered, what would you do? What would you think?

This is punishment, this is judgment.

There is no happy ending.

...I do apologize to you disney lovers out there...

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**Is there no happy ending? Is this not a disney fanfic? There's certainly no pornographic material and I've even laid off on swearing, so then maybe there is a happy ending after all?**

**Find out in the next chapter, or the one after that, or the one after that, in this epic saga of Kingdom Hearts: Defying Judgment **


	3. Chapter 3

**Omg I've recieved another review, I'm so proud of myself that I'm tear jerking here, it's good to know that your work is actually being read by people. I also thank those potential invisible supporters out there who read my fic and at least found it entertaining enough to read on.**

**Which reminds me, I forgot to put a chapter title for the last chapter, not that it actually matters cause I didn't come up with a name for it but yeah...  
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**Chapter 3: Beyond Kingdom Hearts - A King and a Double**

The insistence within the last of the Ansem's reports were that Kingdom Hearts was a doorway to the home of all hearts, at the same time, a place of darkness. Yet what Ansem discovered himself upon stepping into the world that bordered upon Kingdom Hearts was that it was a world of light.

All around him, a light of whiteness stretched as far as his vision could. All that existed within this "room" was a lone gray path that he and the master of heartless walked upon.

It seemed that should he stray off this path ever so slightly, he would fall into a deep pit and never find his way out. Subconsciously, he kept his footing very tightly on the path.

**"We are here."**

"Yes, however the door will not open without the key."

**"The keyblader."**

"She is on her way as we speak, I have opened a path as far as allowed, she should be here any moment from now."

The lord of heartless paid no more attention to Ansem, instead he stepped forward on the gray path until he came close enough to Kingdom Hearts to hammer it with his macabre blade.

He did.

As the blade slammed against the doors of Kingdom Hearts, Ansem swore that he saw the fabric of space bend. The space around Kingdom Hearts appeared to meld themselves away from the blade into a world that it could not touch.

The black blade howled, echoing that soulless darkness that had been used to create the blade and the body of the heartless himself. The howl seemed to return Kingdom Hearts to normal and for a moment, Ansem imagined that the lord of heartless had such power that he alone could force open even Kingdom Hearts.

Yet as the space around Kingdom Hearts returned to normal, ready to be struck, there was a rebound affect so strong that its clash with the heartless' blade deafened Ansem's ears and shattered the blade in half in the process.

The heartless looked from his blade towards the large white door. Slowly heartless appeared from the gray path and swarmed towards the blade, becoming a part of it until it was whole again.

The lord of heartless turned back towards Ansem, **"We will wait."**

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Kairi massaged her shoulders in an attempt to loosen them up. Ansem had provided a nice and neat path towards the destination, but either he couldn't help the swarm of heartless that followed or he simply wanted it that way.

"What a lying cheat, acting all nice." Donald was complaining repetitively, he had lost his favourite hat to one of the heartless.

"Well at least it looks like we're almost there." Kairi pointed towards the end of the passage, a hexagon of light lay at the end, somehow they could all feel that beyond it lay Kingdom Hearts.

"Gwarsh, that's awfully bright right now."

The passage they traveled in was a pitch black tunnel, clearly explaining why they had been ambushed by heartless multiple times, after all it was next to impossible to tell which was which.

Kairi took a few more strides than Donald and Goofy and stepped first through the hexagon. Before her lay the same view that Ansem witnessed moments ago, a gray path, a white world, and a large set of doors.

Kairi raised her keyblade in Ansem's face, "Return Riku and get out of here."

"Sweet and to the point aren't you? But wouldn't you first like to meet the master mind behind all this?"

"Huh?" Donald looked as confused as everyone else, they had all naturally suspected Ansem was the master mind, after all he did play the part well.

Ansem stepped slightly aside to reveal the master of the heartless, motionless, uninterested and simply waiting. "I present, the Lord of the Heartless."

"Him?" Kairi sounded skeptical, sure the thing looked powerful but it didn't look like it had much in terms of thought.

_He's generally what we would call a mid-boss isn't he?_

"That's just another heartless." Donald was naturally a lot more blunt.

The lord ignored all this, **"Keyblader?"**

Kairi tensed up at the voice, the motionless and seemingly harmless figure appeared as though it had just unleashed its ferocious presence.

It turned and looked at Kairi, ignoring Donald, Goofy and Ansem. The yellow eyes seemed to pierce into her and for a moment she thought her legs were quivering.

Goofy stepped forward, his shield in hand and stood in front of Kairi.

Kairi found herself regaining her composure, _That's right, I'm not alone._

"Mastermind or not, you're both going to be taken out here and now!" The emerald blade glowed in resonance to her resolution.

Once again, the lord ignored all this, **"Open it for me, open Kingdom Hearts."**

"In your dreams."

Kairi dashed towards the lord of the heartless, but there was only one gray path, and she could sense that her fall would mean a swift death. So she would have to get rid of Ansem who stood between the two of them, fine, it was going to happen anyways.

Kairi jumped, so that it appeared as though she were diving right into Ansem head first.

_Virgin's Kiss - Sakura Bloom_

Kairi casted Firaga on her blade, in which she proceeded to swing in a circular motion while she was still diving in mid-air. The result was a flurry of dancing firelight that sprang off her blade in all directions thus the name Sakura bloom. The petals of flames clouded Ansem's vision and forced him to raise his arms to shield himself as he braced for the keyblader's assault in the illusion.

Instead what came was a sharp spear of ice from the center of the blossoming fire petals launched by Donald.

Ansem stepped back, evading it. At the same time, Goofy had long prepared for his evasion and had jumped up above him, falling shield-first right onto Ansem.

Ansem hadn't seen Goofy until the shield began casting a shadow, at which point he blocked it with a magical enchantment on his arm and repelled Goofy back to Donald. He turned around for a moment, and there was Kairi, running right towards the lord of the heartless.

"It seems she has overestimated your abilities, all three of you together may have stood a chance, but without the keyblader..." Ansem stretched the arm he had used to block Goofy's drop hit, it was sore...a bit, "Without the keyblader, you are only fodder for the heartless."

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Kairi ran up to the lord of the heartless, her blade in ready position.

She slashed at him.

Kairi had never meant to hit him, it was just to test what kind of reaction she would get from this supposed master of the heartless. Instead it did hit him, right across his eagle face, the strike was never really strong but it did enough damage to send off black smoke from his face, as though part of him turned to dust and flew off. Yet his expression remained the same, that is supposing he had other expressions to begin with.

**"You will not?"**

Kairi pulled her blade back again, and this time she struck hard, and she meant it to hurt.

Which it did, the heartless staggered a little and his left foot seemed to buckle for a moment. Kairi withdrew her blade before he could grab it with his claw or something and they looked at each other. Her, just to see how tough this heartless really was, and him, because well...who knows.

**"KEYBLADER!"**

The lord moved with such unimaginable speed and swung his maleficent sword, the blade left a trail of darkness where it passed in this world of white. All Kairi could muster was an emergency backflip as her evasion. The blade skimmed right above her stomach, missing her flesh by only a hair. But the vibrations it caused in the air struck Kairi and though she ignored it, it felt like one awfully hard punch on her stomach.

_No problem, all part of the plan, though I hadn't quite expected this._

Kairi followed up her momentum and kept running backwards, as though trying to catch herself from falling after the backflip.

----------------------

Ansem held Donald by his head holding him forward like a shield, and Goofy standing before the both of them.

"Useless."

Ansem raised his other hand and summoned a ball of firaga to which he tossed at Goofy who barely bounced it off with his shield but staggered back a few steps.

"It's over dear duck and dog."

"Not quite."

The voice came from behind him, a girl's voice, the keyblader's voice. But how? Surely there was no way she defeated the master of the heartless, had she fled? But why would she flee right into him?

Ansem swung himself around in time to parry off a strike of her blade away from his face.

"Ice!"

A pillar of ice erupted from the end of Donald's staff aimed for Ansem's head.

Ansem released Donald, and just in time ducked his head out of way of the ice pillar.

Donald fell onto Goofy's shield which he had thrown as a boomerang so that Donald sat on the shield and flew past Ansem onto Kairi's side.

Ansem's focus turned to his front side, the keyblader and the duck, but as he did this, he felt Goofy ram him unarmed from the back. it didn't hurt, but it did make him loose his balance for a slight moment.

_Thundaga - Wateraga - Combination Art_

Kairi's blade released a bolt of thunder while Donald summoned up a serpent of water, combining to create a serpent of lightning. The living spell coiled around Ansem in his moment of hesitance and confusion and pinned him onto the gray path.

Kairi stood right on top of him, a moment without stop, there was only one chance and one moment to do it. She plunged the keyblade right into Ansem's chest, at first she met a fierce resistance, a magical barrier of some sort that Ansem had established, but Kairi's domain had been technique, and it only took another moment's focus before her keyblade struck into him. Like dipping a rod into a pond.

_Keyblade magic - Open_

Ansem screamed in fury as his black body began to decompose, at the same time, Kairi felt like something had happened around her with the activation of her magic, but she couldn't tell what it was and since Ansem was still present, she choose to deal with it later.

"Gwarsh it really is Riku!"

Kairi looked down, her face trimmed with tears, it was him, it was really him after all this time. He wore the same cloths as he did when they had last met, carried the same peaceful expression, the same age, he was her memory towards the past, when it was still happy being with each other on that island, when that was the whole world to them and it was enough.

She lifted him gently into her arms, "Riku?"

The boy opened his eyes to see a friend from a long time ago, "Is that...Kairi?"

Kairi nodded, barely able to contain herself, so much to ask, so much to cherish, so much lost memories to make up for, Riku was back.

**"Yes."**

Kairi's mind snapped back into reality, she had almost completely forgotten about this heartless. She had a plan to deal with him if he had interrupted during their fight against Ansem, but he hadn't, and now as she turned to look at him, she began to understand why.

---------------------------------

If Kairi's plan to assault Ansem had gone exactly as she had hoped, then the Lord of the Heartless' plan to open the gate of Kingdom Hearts had also gone exactly as he had hoped, as it was opening right now as he stood before it, looking.

Kairi's keyblade magic would have never affected the door if the lord had never constructed this world that they were in from the first place.

Before Kairi was invited in, he had constructed this white world to be a medium, so that all forms of power are passed through conduction and reaches the doorway. This world where originally nothing stood but pitch blackness was made white by his own power so that he could open this door, whether the keyblader was willing or not. Ansem was a playing piece in the latter situation. Things had proceeded as he had foresaw.

**"Open, Kingdom Hearts, show me my heart."**

"I think you should just give that a rest already." Kairi swung her blade, bound with Donald's magic. The lord didn't bother with her, instead he folded his demon wing and snapped it at her so that it acted as a shield and repelled Kairi's attack.

**"Don't stop me."**

"I can't let a heartless gain the power that's contained within."

**"My heart, don't stop me..."**

"There's a lot more in there than just your heart."

The heartless fell silent, but didn't turn to look at Kairi, **"Please..."**

"Please?" Kairi was naturally surprised, she had never heard a heartless say please, for a moment she hesitated and wondered whether it was really a heartless. Then she saw the glow in his eyes as the door grew wide enough to enter, and she realized her mistake, the greed in his eyes was clear, the desire, this was just another heartless.

"Stop!"

The heartless turned towards her this time and swung his blade. The keyblade and the black sword collided, the keyblade by nature held the advantage as it was made to banish the heartless, yet the brute force of the heartless was on such a different scale that Kairi imagined her arms breaking and sent riveting back or the keyblade cut in half and her body along with it.

But neither happened, instead the heartless pulled back so that Kairi fell forward in her struggle to keep her footing. The heartless spun around and sent his sword cutting at her again at a sideward angle this time.

Kairi had not anticipated the heartless to turn towards strategy rather than his bottomless brute strength, so she was unprepared. But Goofy stormed in just in time to take the full impact with his shield.

The shield was cut in half instantly, but the magic it held parried the heartless' assault. Yet Goofy was sent flying right into Kairi, and her being off balance didn't help. So they both stumbled and fell off the gray path into what would be a bottomless pit.

"Gotcha."

Kairi looked from Goofy hanging onto her hand below her, and Riku who had mustered all ounce of strength to hold her arm. Donald ran as fast as his legs could carry him and held out his...well wings to help lift Kairi and Goofy. Note here that Kairi was ok, she was a girl after all, but Goofy, he was just huge.

"Loose some weight, you're going to turn into Peter at this rate." Note that Peter was the fat...well I suppose dog, who always seemed to play the villain in those mickey movies.

"Gwarsh, I'm not evil."

"Guy's, not to be a critic or anything but this is a bad time for jokes." Riku was panting now, he didn't have the strength for this kind labour already.

Kairi turned to look at the heartless as she tried her best to help with being pulled up, or at least hanging onto Goofy, he was really heavy and her arms felt like breaking any minute now.

The heartless paid no attention to them, instead it began to walk through the door.

_I've failed my duty, I've failed what Sora entrusted to me...I'm sorry Sora._

**"My heart...Sora..."**

"Woh hoho, and where do you think you're going?"_  
_

A golden stream of light erupted from inside Kingdom Hearts, sending the heartless back so that if he took one more step back, he would end up stepping on Donald which would essentially lead to the demise of Kairi and Goofy.

From the other side of the door, two figures appeared, one who was a lot shorter than the other.

In his hand, he held a golden keyblade, and wore a pair of red pants...that's it...pretty light attire. His ears were rounded and black a thin tail extended from a purposely cut whole on his pants. The best way to describe him was obviously a rat...I mean a mouse. Yes, the cute furry kind that bites off your furniture and nibble your cheese when you're asleep like a good little boy on Christmas eve.

"King Mickey!" Donald was ecstatic, and Goofy, who couldn't see well enough but could hear him almost forget he was hanging onto his life and began wiggling in excitement.

"Donald? Goofy? Weren't you guys just with Sora?" This was the other voice, a child who had stepped through the gate with the King. He had the same hair, he wore the same cloths, and he carried the same expression of utter confidence.

"Riku?" Kairi gasped, if he was then who was the one holding onto her hand?

Both of the Riku's looked at each other, just as confused as the other one.

"Me?"

* * *

**Well there goes another chapter, this would take us about halfway through what I had in mind originally for the fic. So far so good, although I was planning on finishing this sooner but got caught up on my summer job and reading Full Metal Panic novel, it's good stuff.**

**Until next time, and remember, dopplegangers exist...or not? **


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter took longer than I thought to start on, there were some ideas that were on a rough edge and needed some smoothing out, if anyone finds that anything is too confusing to understand, just ask and they'll be adressed as a side note next chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 - The Heartless with a Name**_  
_

_Let me through!_

_It's mine!_

Sora howled as Mickey parried him off again with a stroke of golden radiance. The pain of the light seared his skin, it burned his flesh. But Sora paid no attention to these minor details, for so long now he had never felt the call of his heart as strongly as it called for him now. It was so close, and soon he would be whole again.

**"Out of my way!"**

Sora raised his black blade and brought it down upon Mickey's keyblade, behind the 3 feet tall mouse, the other humans and barn animals were running into Kingdom Hearts, it appeared as though they were attempting to take shelter within.

Sora slashed again, this time from down to up, as Mickey blocked the strike he could feel himself being lifted off the ground by the massive force of power.

"Your majesty!" Riku, the one who had come through the door, we'll call him D Riku, extended his hand right before Mickey was sent off for a homerun and pulled him back in.

"Is everyone inside?"

Riku nodded in response.

"Let's go then!"

Both Riku and Mickey ran towards Kingdom Hearts, back inside the door which to everyone present seemed to be the only able barrier between them and the rampaging heartless.

**"STOP!"**

_Come on guys, don't do this to me._

_It's not funny you know Riku, both of you for that matter._

Sora reached out with his claw to grab Mickey as they stood at the door's bounds. Mickey shoved Riku right inside the door as he turned to strike Sora's claw with the keyblade. Sora's claw recoiled before Mickey could put a hit on it, but then as Mickey turned to continue running, the claw extended again faster than it had recoiled and grasped the keyblade.

"O no you don't!" Mickey concentrated as a golden raidance spread through the blade of his weapon.

The light seared the flesh of Sora until black smoke began arising from his claw, but he held still. Pain was nothing, meaningless to a heartless, all he wanted as his heart back, and that was all that he would care about.

Instead of continuing in the power struggle, Mickey released his blade and dashed within the door, to where the others stood, amazed, shocked and somewhat terrified.

"Your majesty, the keyblade!" Riku noted that it was still there, and if Kingdom Hearts was going to protect them from the heartless, the keyblade would be needed to seal the door.

"Don't worry, I can summon the keyblade." Mickey extended his hand outwards expecting the same thing he had done so many times. The keyblade would vanish and appear again in the hands of its worthy one at their summon.

Instead what Mickey saw was his keyblade as it shattered into a million pieces at the hands of the heartless. The shockwave it generated sent the heartless flying back for a few steps, but the keyblade itself was all but gone.

"What?" Mickey peaked his ears out in shock, his tail pointy and straight.

D Riku summoned his sword from the shadows and stood in front of Mickey, with the keyblade gone they would simply have to hold off their stance here. Whatever this heartless was, it was far too powerful to be let into Kingdom Hearts.

Kairi tapped Mickey on his shoulder, "I've got a keyblade right here. Is it enough to close the door?"

Mickey opened his eyes...and stared..."Kairi? You've got a keyblade?"

D Riku turned around, "Wait what? This is Kairi? That's way too old to be Kairi your majesty!"

Kairi relentlessly struck D Riku on the head, needless to say, it hurt. "Sorry for being **too old** Riku!"

"That's not what I meant, ow ow ow..."

"Guys, we can talk about how not to upset woman after we're safe." Riku spoke calmly but naturally he was annoyed and freaked, not only was he staring at his double make a horrendous wise crack, Kairi seemed insistent to go along with it right before the heartless outside the door slashes them to pieces.

Mickey seemed to get the clue well enough, "Right, Kairi point your keyblade there and just seal it like you do with the world keyholes." Mickey pointed towards the center of the door, where the handles would be on Kingdom Hearts if the door was closed.

Kairi took a deep breath in and raised her keyblade towards the empty space constituting for a door. As she did so, Sora's foot stepped within Kingdom Hearts and his blade extended, driving it towards Kairi's face.

D Riku struck out the flat of his sword right in front of Kairi's face before Sora's blade reached the tip of her nose. The collision caused a mini-shockwave that blew in Kairi's face and lifted her hair, while Riku's blade looked as though it was about to shatter.

"Donald!" Kairi bellowed.

Donald waved his wand in a few circles as he called upon his most destructive spell.

"Meteor!"

A concentrated ball of heat shot from the tip of Donald's wand and incinerated the heartless. He stepped back and out through the door again, grasping his face which burned from invisible flames.

_Virgin's Kiss - Pulsate_

Kairi placed her hand along with her keyblade on the chest of the heartless, she could feel a tiny portion of the sear of heat radiating from him, but she was much more protected by her affinity to Donald's magic.

In an instant, her body seemed to twitch all over the place starting from a spiral motion at her ankles until her wrists flicked, causing a shockwave that tumbled Sora backwards.

"Now Kairi!"

Kairi jumped back, her keyblade raised to seal the door.

_Keyblade Magic - Seal_

A beam of light shot from the keyblade and split into hundreds of beams as they clung onto the edge of the door and began to close it.

"Faster faster!"

"Be quiet Donald! I'm going as fast as I can."

Beyond the closing door, Kairi saw the heartless standing back up, looking as though it was ready for one last attempt.

_Kairi?_

_Is that really you Kairi? Who are you Kairi? Who's Kairi..._

_Kai...ri?_

**"Kairi..."**

For a split moment, time seemed to stand still for Sora and Kairi, she paused, unaware that the process of closing the door had also stopped with her. And for Sora, it was as though for that short moment, he had grasped again his heart.

**"Kingdom Hearts!"**

Kairi was shaken away from her trance as the heartless began running towards her. Her focus began to seal the door again, there was no time to ponder whether the heartless calling out her name meant something, she could do that later when he wasn't busy trying to kill her.

Sora raised his blade and struck down at the tiny crack that now remained open of the door, the blade wisped by inches away from Kairi's face as the door shut on his arm, tearing it apart from his body. The arm fell to the floor, and within a few short moments, disintegrated into the surrounding darkness.

Kairi escaped the ordeal unharmed except for a few hairs that had been scraped off. The thump from the closing of the door still rang in her ears as her legs buckled and she sat down, exhausted and somewhat afraid. This heartless was nothing that she had ever seen before, devastating power and bottomless determination.

She laid her head back down on the ground, now that she had time, she noticed this place was rather awkward. The world was a mixture of dark and white, the floor she laid on seemed to be the only solid surface in all this world, while it held her steadily it was soft and gentle.

She rolled her head back on the floor until her eyes met with D Riku, "So? Got a story to tell?"

----------------------------

"So, allow me to make a summary of what we've put together."King Mickey stood in the center of the semi-circle the group had formed, as though they were waiting to hear a camp story told by the fire. In which case, Mickey would be standing in the fire and burning himself.

The information exchange had lasted a decent while and it took even longer to make sense of what was going on. In the process, both the Riku's got to know each other well enough, not that they were different enough anyways, to pull off a few pranks and a game of "guess whos who". Kairi lost miserably.

"Basically, imagine a giant sphere at the center of everything. On the outer rims of this sphere are the doors known as Kingdom Hearts, the key point is for your to imagine that there are many of these doors, hundreds, thousands, millions. Each door leads to another sphere but in these spheres there are no other doors, instead what exists are many worlds within that sphere. Twilight Town, Arabia, Hallow Bastion, worlds like those. My speculation is that the sphere Kairi came through is concidently very close and thus smiliar to ours whereas other spheres may have been different since the start."

Goofy raised his hand, "Gwarsh, does that mean there's another me on the other side of this here place King Mickey?"

"That's the idea. In my sphere, Kairi never gains the powers of the keyblade and Sora was the one who defeated Ansem. So we can tell that while the general structure of these spheres are the same, what occurs in them are ultimately different. Though this may only be a speculation on my part, but I imagine it's possible that there may be many similar and different spheres outside Kingdom Hearts. By the way, stop calling me King Mickey, I'm not quite used to you two doing that."

(Mickey's simple theory was used as the basis of Donald's attempt at opening passageways towards different spheres through Kingdom Hearts. Though Donald failed to see the completion of his work before his natural death, his future apprentice succeeded his work and opened the door the a sphere long gone array. That is a story far away in the future of course.)

"So Sora's fine in the other world huh..." Kairi bit her lips silently, why couldn't see have such luck. She kind of envied the other Kairi, even if they couldn't see each other, at least she knew Sora was still alive.

"Yes, from what I've been able to gather, the key difference seems to occured at some point during or after your visit to Hallow Bastion. Either Sora never escaped the fate of a heartless in your world or his return has caused damage to his memory. Of course this is the only one of many potential differences."

Riku spoke up, "So why are you guys here then?"

It was D Riku who answered this time, if Kairi wasn't looking at the two of them, she'd swear one Riku asked a question and just answered it himself.

"We found the condition to locking away Kingdom Hearts. It takes 2 keyblades to do it, one from the outside, one from the inside. His majesty, as you can imagine, took care of the inside while Sora sealed the door from the outside. I tagged along cause well...it seemed like something I could do."

Kairi realized the implications of what he had said, "Wait, isn't the door already sealed? You mean someone's going to have to stay here?"

Mickey nodded, "And this brings us to the key point of what we're going to do. As you can now imagine, Kingdom Hearts is not sealed, and if let be in it's current state, the heartless will be able to enter it and cause changes and damage unknown."

"But there are already heartless in here." Donald asked puzzled

Donald spun around a little and pointed out a clod of level 2 heartless in the distance, gathering around patches of white light.

"That's true, but none of these heartless have enough will to do much except to take the occasional heart that drifts by, the heartless from outside who have experiences things and have evolved have enough will and desire to cause shifts in the core of Kingdom Hearts. For example, this powerful heartless we're dealing with seems to want something from within Kingdom Hearts, normally Heartless don't conciously enter Kingdom Hearts, if they do enter, it's simply because they happened to drift in."

Mickey took a quick pause and seemed to think deeply about what he was going to say next.

"About Kairi's question, I'm rather certain of it now that I've met you all, that there are in fact other spheres, and as such, more keybladers. You see, as me and Riku have been wandering through Kingdom Hearts, we've heard various whispers and voices calling out to us. I've been wondering for a long time what it is, but now I'm rather sure that it has been the calling of other keybladers of other worlds, perhaps inside Kingdom Hearts perhaps outside."

"Guh, so there are actually lots of people in here besides us?"

"That's what I believe, if not here then at least right outside the door. What I've also been led to believe is that time flows differently inside and outside of Kingdom Hearts. I've happened to come across a few messages that seem to stretch on for hours and sometimes days on end when they would normally take only a few seconds to say. Though it's been giving me and Riku more than a few headaches, I believe it will be the key to our plan."

"Our plan being? I hate to sound rude your...majesty, but I hope this plan gets us all back home." Riku was blunt, if this plan meant Kairi was stuck in here for who knows how long alone, he wouldn't go through with it.

"Don't worry Riku, the plan is simple and it ensures that we all go home properly."

Mickey took a seat now, he looked around a bit as if expecting some water but realizing nothing of the sort was around.

"My keyblade has the ability to open passages to worlds that I have already visited, though I can't seem to do this within Kingdom Hearts, I'm sure that I can do it outside. This is how I'm going to get you home Riku." Mickey pointed at D Riku.

"From what I believe, the Riku of your world has still retained most of his powers right? Our Riku has lost most of his while he was defeated by Sora, so one part of my plan is to have you two combine your powers to help hold off that heartless."

The two Riku's looked at each other, easier said than done, were they supposed to merge, transform or something?

"I've got a feel for how strong that heartless is and I think even with all of us combined we can only drive it off at best, what I'm afraid of is any stray heartless stumbling into Kingdom Hearts while we fight. The main plan is that while that heartless is distracted, Kairi and myself seal Kingdom Hearts, I'll do it from the inside. The sealing of the door will cause a resonance effect within this space which will collapse it, I've seen it happen once. Use that collapse to escape and head back to your world however you came, even if the heartless escapes it as well, the resonance effect will prevent him from rebuilding a path towards Kingdom Hearts for many many years."

Kairi stood up, "I see but...your majesty, you're not suggesting you sacrifice yourself."

Mickey shook his head, "Nothing so heroic, if you remember my theory from before. I will simply switch places with someone outside another Kingdom Hearts and then return to my world using the ability of my keyblade."

"I see, because time flows differently, there may be a chance that only days have passed before you find someone else to switch with." Mickey nodded at this, though he left out the fact that he had also more than once heard messages so fast he could barely catch them with his ear.

Riku acted out the pessimist, "What makes you think they want to switch places though?"

Mickey looked as though he wasn't quite sure how to explain this, "You haven't been in there Riku, I hear and feel their urges, whatever the reason, those people want in, and if I can let them in for just a little cooperation on their end, I don't think it'll be much trouble. Besides Riku, I love my family and world as well, I may try my best to do the right thing but I also want to return to them, no matter what."

Both the Riku's stood up, all that had needed to be said had been, "Well guess we better go practice this combining thing while we still have some time."

Kairi looked at the two of them walk off, "Your majesty, I personally don't think it's possible for Riku to hold off that heartless for very long, which is why I was wondering something. Is your keyblade fine now?"

Mickey summoned up his keyblade for her, the blade had miraculously put itself back together, except that now there were many cracks and chips over the place, some parts looked as though they would simply snap apart if the heartless got ahold of them again.

"Not in the best condition as you can see, but it's enough to seal the door."

Kairi looked to be in deep thought for a moment, "Yes, it should be enough...Your majesty, at one point I attempted to invent a twin blade technique based on the keyblade."

"Huh? Twin blade?"

"The original idea was to be able to hold two swords at the same time, I had Cid forge one for me and Donald enchant it, but the blade never lasted long against heartless above level 2. Yet the techniques worked rather well, so I was thinking whether we were able to share keyblades."

"O?" Mickey extended out his keyblade to Kairi, offering it.

"The other way around your majesty, you can bring out the power of the keyblade a lot better than me, I can teach you the one technique that can work best against that heartless. And if Riku is able to help out then we should at least be able to drive it off if not defeat it altogether. After all, you can't really send Riku off back to his world if he's busy fighting heartless." Kairi smiled.

Kairi offered Mickey her keyblade, he held the emerald keyblade gently, its touch seemed cool and sharp, much different from the feel his own keyblade gave him.

He swung it.

A golden radiance emitted from the core of the keyblade and shattered away the emerald surface as though it were paint, quickly, the keyblade now looked as his own tattered blade did before the heartless got a hold of it.

"Well, better start teaching."

Kairi nodded as she instructed Mickey in her duel blade technique but she only had time to teach him one combination, the one she thought would work best.

_Duel Blade Combination - Sora_

---------------------------------

"Ready everyone?" Mickey asked.

The team nodded, Goofy and Kairi as well as Riku stayed towards the back, they were the ones who weren't able to provide real firepower anymore.

D Riku and Riku had managed to channel the power of darkness remaining in Riku into D Riku, while some strange complications arose, no immediate dangers seemed to occur. Upon channeling the power, D Riku summoned up his old blade and felt the strength emminating from it once more, but at the same time, he also seemed to be subconciously mumbling something dark and disturbing. Riku left that fact alone, they needed power right now, even if it came at a cost. To be honest, he also didn't mind it as much, after all this would be the last time he saw his twin if all went well, it wasn't that he was cold, it was just that he had enough after all this time, he just wanted to go home.

"One last time Kairi, like this right?" Mickey held his tattered blade on his left hand and immitated a quick jump, spiral, slash combination.

"It'll have to do." Kairi looked upon the door, a few hours ago they had begun hearing bashing sounds on the door, now what had looked sealed hours ago had creeked open bit by bit. Beyond the door still protected by Kingdom Heart's magic, Kairi saw that the heartless seemed to be moving very slowly from her eyes, at least that part of Mickey's theory was confirmed now.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three! Go!"

Mickey side stepped his body through the crack that was now big enough for him to enter through, for a moment his felt his body twitch and acknowledged it as the correction of time and space.

Behind him was D Riku, his sword in hand tailing Mickey as though he was a shadow.

Sora reacted quickly to the enemies whom to him had only dissapeared through the door minutes ago. He jumped a step back and ripped a small handful of flesh from his hips, slowly as he raised his handful of flesh, he crushed them with the claw he held it with.

The flesh seemed to turn liquid and dripped out of his palm followed by a massive incinerating sensation in the atmosphere.

_Firaga - Tornado Special_

A tornado of flames appeared from before Sora and launched itself towards D Riku and Mickey.

"Riku, don't falter!"

"Alright!"

Mickey jumped straight into the flaming tornado, spiraling in a motion that resembled the tornado itself except in the opposite direction. The next moment, a golden radiance was unleashed within the tornado and the flames seperated themselves.

Mickey had lost his momentum due to the flame assault, but D Riku had never stopped.

D Riku slipped under Mickey who was still air-borne from the spiral assault. Coming right beneath Sora, Riku unleashed a brute slash upwards. Sora's claw extended out to catch the blade, as the powers of darkness clashed together D Riku felt a constant pulsation in his head as if a strong but far off voice was screaming at him.

D Riku backed off, but it had been enough, he had covered the heartless' attention long enough for Mickey to reach him.

Mickey kicked off of D Riku's shoulders, it can't be helped, hes not tall enough to pull off the combo without a boost. Unexpectedly, D Riku collapsed from Mickey's jump boost, but he had no time for that now, Mickey had only one chance to do this right, his own keyblade wouldn't be able to handle a second try in its current condition.

_Duel Blade Combination - Sora_

Mickey's left key hooked onto the heartless' arm as he used it to swing right into the heartless, the left key then retracted and hooked onto the heartless' right arm, but as Mickey moved, his right blade struck down in a spiral motion on the shoulder of the heartless.

From the second arm Mickey swung towards the hips, legs, shoulder, neck. Each time he made a transition, he would place a spiraling hit on the heartless, while all the time he had been speeding up, faster and faster in his swinging.

Due to the immensity of the strikes and the seemingly random positioning of Mickey's strikes, Sora was left bellowing and clawing around in places on his own body and hitting air.

"Here it comes!" Mickey yelled out as he prepared for the last part of the combination, the part that he had no confidence in.

Mickey hooked both of his keyblades onto the shoulder of the heartless as he brought his own body circling up towards Sora's face. The original idea was to used all the momentum gathered and perform a finishing strike down towards the face of the opponent. Unfortunately, in the process of all his swinging, the left keyblade had deterioated and broke as Mickey hooked it onto Sora's shoulders.

The shattered swing made Mickey lose his balance, but this was his only chance, so he struck down with the keyblade that remained on his other hand.

The strike was tremendously powerful, Sora felt his body vibrate from the intensity as his body was sent flying towards Kingdom Hearts.

"No!" Mickey yelled realized the mistake he had just made, his blow would throw the heartless right into Kingdom Hearts, into Kairi, and if the heartless could still muster whatever strength it may still have, then he would have won.

Kairi watched as Mickey's slip sent the heartless flying her way, the door was open wide enough that he would be able to crash through.

Kairi charged towards the flying heartless while Donald and Goofy attempted to call her back.

With a wave of her hand, Kairi summoned her keyblade from Mickey's grasp, she swung it down towards the heartless, as hard as she could. There was no technique that would do here, it was a test of brute strength and Kairi was very weak in that category.

Traces of the golden radiance remained on the blade as Kairi brought it down on the heartless. The result was an emerald sphere that engulfed the two of them that kept flying back towards Donald who fortunately dodged it before his tail was burned yet again.

"Kairi!" Riku ran up towards where the sphere had crashed, Kairi had to be alright, she just had to be.

But when the emerald gust cleared enough for Riku to see through, he stopped, steps away from Kairi and Sora.

Before his eyes was Sora, the Sora he had known for all these years, the boy with the gravity defying hair who was roudy, far too happy for his own good and his best friend.

"Sora? ...how?"

Sora slowly opened his eyes, he looked around, Riku, and another Riku and King Mickey along with Riku, helping him walk towards himself. There was Donald and Goofy in the corner, they seemed surprised as they walked towards him.

Then there was Kairi, he was lying on top of her lap. She seemed surprised, scared, happy, sad, so many things all at once.

A tear drop trickled on Sora's face and he looked up to see Kairi crying, tears of joy perhaps? Or it could be just about anything. What had happened? He didn't remember anything, but at least Sora could tell what he was supposed to do at a time like this.

I lifted my hand gently and placed it on her cheek, so warm, so soft, gentleness that I hadn't felt in such a long time.

"Kairi." I said, and then I smiled.

* * *

**This one seems to have pulled on a bit longer than I thought it would but it's mainly because I wanted to wrap up the story next chapter, so look forward to it.**  



	5. Chapter 5

**So here it is, the final chapter of this fic.**

**The first chapter was dedicated to the heartless Sora, the second and third to Kairi and company, the fourth to Riku and the King and this last one is dedicated to the human keybearer who fought endlessly known as Sora.**

**Enjoy. **

* * *

**Final Chapter - Return **

**I've been having these strange dreams lately...**

**Like...**

**Is this really a dream?**

**Or reality?**

----------

I was drifting...no walking, it got hard to tell the difference after I had been in here so long.

Alone.

I had become a heartless, and the only way to sustain my "self" without my heart was to devour the hearts of others, the pure hearts that floated into Kingdom Hearts.

_"Kairi, you can only leave him..."_

I twitched, my arms imploded as a dark blade exploded, the pain stinged me so badly that I dropped my keyblade, the key repulsed from my bladed right arm, creating a painful resonance of energies within my head.

"Yes, the King was right, I would've killed Kairi by now if she were still here..."

------------

_"Sora you managed to return to being human due to the purity of the flow of hearts within this place, a heart must've been accidently absorbed by you during that collision with Kairi."_

_"From everything we've managed to gather, it seems the Sora in our world took your heart when he was changed back by Kairi's power, what she did wasn't really change him back, what she did was use her powers as a princess of heart to guide a heart most similar to his to the body of the heartless. In other words, yours."_

_Mickey seemed hesitant as he said these things, guilty perhaps? Maybe, maybe just ever so slightly. We had stepped away from Kairi, she seemed...really uncomfortable. _

_"So I can never leave?"_

_...  
_

_"...The only choice I can offer is this, you will take the keyblade and seal Kingdom Hearts from within, by residing within, you will be able to both maintain your human nature and well...search for a replacement much in the same way that Kairi did."_

_...  
_

_"You're leaving again Sora?"_

_Yes I was leaving again, leaving Kairi and Riku again, but this time not to search for them, but to search for myself, so that I could return to them as the person I was._

_"I'll be back, I promise. And if I get lucky like the King said, maybe I'll even get back in time for dinner."_

_Kairi seemed to bite back a tear and smiled instead. Riku was silent, looking like he was going to hunt me down for making her cry._

_"You know Sora, I can still join you." _

_I pushed him gently on the shoulder, "To get in my way?" I smiled, as wide as I could, it was the most important magic, the one that Donald and Goofy taught me. _

_"Alright squirt, you know yourself best."_

_I did, and I could already feel it, I would devour their hearts if I stayed beside them any longer, such strong hearts when I myself was such a frail container without any heart._

_...  
_

_Everyone was on the other side, Mickey had promised he would take them back, even if they had a little searching to do to get back to destiny island._

_I waved to them, Kairi looked like she was going to forget everything and just run towards me. It made me glad and giddy inside, though I'm not sure how that was possible without a heart. She remembered me and kept me in her thoughts even after all this time._

_"Kingdom Hearts! Close!"_

_I couldn't see them any more except through the small crack, I think I heard someone crying on the other side, but I couldn't tell anymore, so tired of being human, so tired..._

_-------------------_

It was time again, I had surpassed my limit, I required another heart.

I closed off my eyes and summoned it, without conciously doing anything, my empty soul accepted the heart that had flown to my calling. The memories flooded within me, the emotions, though it was brief, it kept me human for ever so much longer.

This one was a man named Kaima, a father who fought until his last stand on a battle field in some unknown world to protect his daughter. His story was a sad one, but his daughter had made every moment of sadness filled with joy, she was everything to him, so it was only fitting that when she died, he died with her.

I continued walking, aimlessly, and pointlessly, savouring every moment of Kaima's life into my own memory, before it faded to the point where I could no longer recall it.

I had just realized that I had left my keyblade on the floor a while back, I looked at my right hand, it was human again so I summoned the keyblade upon that hand, the blade no longer seared my flesh, not even the slightest burn.

Time was almost meaningless in this place, if I had to say, I had been walking for a year now, so many times I had heard voices like the King had mentioned I would, but without a sufficient heart, there was no purpose in leaving this world.

I sat down.

I was tired of walking, not physically but mentally, the scenery never changed and all heartless would shy away from me, they knew what I was deep down.

**_Of course they do, I am here after all._**

"Heartless..."

**_Such spite, we've been together for so long and you still don't get along with me?_**

"If you weren't here, everything would be all right."

_**Don't be stupid, I am a part of you.**_

"Are you going to tell me to embrace the darkness now?"

_**Haha! A year ago maybe, but theres no point now boy, you love this darkness.**_

"No."

_**Anyone else would've been driven insane here, yet you enjoy toothpicking your void with the hearts of so many here, how many victims have you claimed? Hearts that will never live again, lives that are eternally lost within you. F-u-n, wasn't it?**_

"No!"

I shivered and went delirious, I struck the keyblade against myself, to drive out this insanity, to drive out this darkness.

But then I remembered, yes it was so easy to forget things here. The heartless were darkness, they weren't evil, they were desire.

_I want to protect my daughter, I will do whatever it takes._

From Kaima's heart there grew a heartless, for the universal governing force saw the need to balance, his desire for his daughter, his will to do whatever it took. The light of his thoughts, the darkness of his actions.

"And you are born from my sacrifice and chains to being human."

**_Yes well, you were tired of it. Though I'm tired of you forgetting things, we've had this conversation so many times I'd kill you if you slipped far enough to being a heartless to give me an arm._**

"Well, it'll all be over soon."

_**O? How can you tell?**_

"I'm tired, my mind will break soon without a heart to call my own."

_**Too bad Sora, I had wanted more, well a heartless may live eternally, so anything less is just too bad. It's a pity a strong heartless can't survive without a strong will to support it.  
**_

"Well...that's just...too bad for both of us then."

I fell to my knees, whatever this world was made of cushioned my fall and prevented me from tormenting pain moments before my "self" dissolved away.

"Sooner than I thought...guess I won't be back in time for dinner Kairi...sorry Riku, I'll have to kick your butt...some other time..."

_**...Pity, you know if you could've held on for a bit longer I imagine...**_

The world faded into darkness and light at the same time.

--------------------------------------------

_I am Kingdom Hearts, I see the end of all judgement, I see all tragic tales to their final moments._

_Sora's life has ended in exchange for the life of the other Sora who lives still..._

_Still?_

_Yet what was this I felt? _

_Strange, like a gear that had flow off the clock without being noticed, an extra gear outside the mechanisms of the machine._

_Sora?_

---------------------------------------------

"Hey, you look like a mess Sora."

I looked up from the floor, it was an old man, somehow stumbled within this world.

He seemed so frail, but yet as our eyes met I saw something past him within his heart, and there I recognized an image so intense that my body began to throb.

"You're..."

He extended his hand out to me, I grabbed it with more strength than I thought I still had.

"Thanks for the loan Sora, it's your turn now, to live the life that I borrowed."

His heart passed through to me, and in that moment I was certain, a miracle had occured for whatever reasons. I didn't care why or how, I was glad, truly truly glad.

Between muffled tears from experiencing the life this old man had lived through I called out, "Thank you...Sora..."

---------------

Destiny Island.

I found myself here through some magic of the keyblade I never knew it possessed. Getting out of Kingdom Hearts wasn't much work, but it did take time to find someone who was willing. A cloaked man who wore a mask and carried a different looking keyblade, he was extremly silent but I didn't need to see much of him to be concerned.

I found myself a little raft laying at the side of the beach, the island itself looked like it hadn't been visited in ages, not surprising, Kairi could have never mananged to maintain this whole fort herself while Riku and I was gone and who knows how long it's been since they returned...

At the thought I shuddered, how long had it been? There was no way to tell.

As I rowed closer to town, my guts shriveled, I recognized nothing, the streets I prowled the last time I had seen home were different, except for a few houses that I could still make out.

"How many years then? Twenty? Thirty?" I whispered to myself, I was afraid, that even though I had returned, I had already lost the home I belonged to.

Kairi left my an addresse of where she lived, she said that she would wait, no matter how long it took.

The last thing that I wanted to see was a broken down house where she had written her addresse, it would pain me to no end.

As I trudged down the streets I recognized no one, and no one looked as though they knew who I was. I had grown a bit, but not so much that I had completely changed...

Past a large clocktower, a school that had permanetly locked gates, houses where nothing but plain land stood before.

I wanted to ask someone what year it was, but it was meaningless, I couldn't remember what year I had left, I was also afraid of the answer that they may give.

Finally I came upon the house that Kairi had told me about.

A wooden cabin rather far away from the main parts of town, it seemed in good conditions, it was still day so I couldn't tell whether anybody was inside from the lights.

I knocked gently, there was no answer and the silence only made me more anxious.

I opened the door, the first thing that caught my eyes was a picture of Kairi on a table, and beside it incense burning, a way that people mourned for the dead.

"No..."

I ran through the next door that appeared to me, slamming it away, I had to know for sure, I just had to.

But door after door, there was no one, nobody, I gave up as I gazed through the kitchen one last time. I began walking back towards the front, dazed, unable to think clearly.

"Kairi..."

Just then the door opened, I lifted my head, it didn't really matter who it was but at least they might be able to tell me something.

"Sora, you're late you know, you missed dinner last night and we made all that stuff for you too. I do have some breakfast though, wanna join me?"

I was stunned, unable to speak, Kairi was in front of me, the same way I had last seen her, as though only a day had passed by.

"O that...Riku's sick idea of a joke, he thought you'd completely freak out, said he didn't put his own photo there was you wouldn't really care. Umm...you didn't really take it seriously now did you?"

I laughed, so hard that tears fell, so hard that it hurt, but so wonderfully happy.

"Woah, what's going on in there, I thought you weren't bringing boys home and reserving the title of boyfriend for Sora, Kairi." Riku's voice, I'd pound him later for the sick joke.

"Shhh...Don't say that out loud."

Riku stepped in beside Kairi, "Hey, look just in time to steal some of my breakfast."

Kairi handed Riku her luggage, "Go set these up in the kitchen."

"And leave you love birds alone? Yes madame."

She threw him an irritated look, "Just go."

Riku left and as soon as he did Kairi shyly turned towards me, "Welcome home Sora."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and look back on her, I remembered the life of the other Sora and in his thoughts was a moment exactly like this, what was it again I was supposed to say now?

"I'm home."

* * *

**And so it ends, the ending may seem kind of rushed, that's because it was, I haven't played Kingdom Hearts for quite a while now and really wanted to just wrap this up so I could move onto something else, but never the less I did put effort into this last chapter, hope it was a good ending for those of you who have read this far.**

**Thanks for your support. **


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